ELECTRIC POWER

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 3784, 10 May 1919, Page 1

ELECTRIC POWER

I « _ <> I NEEDS AND DEVELOPMENTS I somk of Tili<; «![)[■; issi.:ks ' Mv L. iJirks, the Chit-f lOieftri.-al KiiKincur of the Public Works Department (who sni'coeded Mr Pan-y j'oci'iitly) was in I'Vildin-i ytislerday ,in company with ..Mr Darragli, of twi. Mr was enquiring into Uiu prospeeLs of obtaining charging ■Jiu-'ilities for eleeli'ic vehicles at "the local electricity works, as both tho Itongotea Dairy Co. and the Mannwatn County Council are going in extensively for the Edison storage battery lorry for heavy traction. Mr liirks called 'at the Stah ofTico for the purpose of giving u.s some information l'egai-dinK the rapid progress of the electric vehicle in Christehiirch, and, in conjunction with'Mr j Hubbard, the Feilding enginetir, some 1 interesting.information was given, Mr Hubbard having reeenf.lv visited Lake ' EUesmere. Mr _ Stark, the Chris tchurcb city electrical engineer., is making every effort to push the use of the electric vehicle, and meelinc with great success in doing so. There are already a number of electric lorries in use I there, and the demand for others is developing almost daily. The Christchurch City Council is erecting a very large brick garage for the housing and charging of these vehicles, immediate provision being made for GO cars, with facilities for ready extension in the near future. The power i s obtained from Lake Coleridge; and as the principal cost is the overhead capital charge, there being no fuel to purchase, the Government sells to the City Council on the basis of the maximum demand.

This, of course, ensures that the distributing authority will make every effort to obtain loading for the plant at such times as the demand for electricity for ordinary lighting and power requirements is small, notably during the hours from 10 p.m. to 7.30 a.m., as this means increase of revenue, with practically no increase of cost. To obtain this desirable end, several industries have been developed through the medium of a cheap supply of electricity during the night hours, after the bulk of the lighting load has gone- oil.

Foremost ol : those has been tlie advent of fclio electric storage vehicle, which, owing to the oxtroinely low maintenance and running cost, combined with a maximum of reliability. is rapidly coming into great favoiiV. These ears conic in at night, and are garaged, supervised, and charged by the Council at an annual cost lor each vehicle of J'roin £'-10 to £100, according to truck capacity, the lowest figure being for a hall-ton truck. This, combined with the greater reliability and decreased mechanical and lyre wear of an electric, shows a very large waving over the cost of running the ordinary commercial petrol - driven truck.

Other interesting developments arc the installation of industries for the manufacture of carbide of calcium and oxide of iron for paint making. The latter process is very interesting, the raw material consisting of old tins of every description which are brought in by the garbage carts to the destructor. Instead of going to the furnaces as previously, these are now flattened, put into cells containing an electrolyte, and reduced to a paeto i>y medium of an electric current. This iron oxide is then dried, ground, roasted, and again ground with oil, forming red and brown oxide paints. Another interesting process is ih«? obtaining of compressed oxygen for oxy-acutmie welrtinti. by the electrolysis of water, the electric current bav'ing the power of splitting up that fluid into its chemical constituents, hydrogen and oxygen. Mr Waddell, an acetone specialist in Christehureh. found some difficulty in obtaining sufficient supplies of -ixygen for his requirements from the N.Z. agents, who obtain their compressed oxygen from liquified air. He accordingly set up bis own plant, obtaining the oxygon a:i statoa above, through electrolysis of water. Ho «tatos that the oxygen s > obtained is considerably better for his purpose than that made from liquified air.

Electricity for the above industries is, of course,- sold at a very cheap rate, the Electrical Engineer having the right to decide at what hours the supply shall be given, and to disconnect whenever other requirements make it necessary.

Such industries, primarily dependent upon a cheap supply of electricity, will undoubtedly increase greatly in the future, when the Lake Coleridge plant is augmented by additional machinery, which has been on order for a long time, but delivery held up by the war.

As in Feilding already enquiries have been made as to whether the batteries of electrically driven trucks could be charged here, the answer is that a special plant would be necessary. This would be n. good investment, for the recharging could lie done during the right hours when Feilding gets its full jwivcr going again.